Probing components on a printed circuit board becomes increasingly difficult as the miniaturization of electronic components continues and circuit densities increase. Traditional alligator clips have been miniaturized over the years to allow testing of components on miniaturized circuit boards. However, newer surface mount components in many cases do not have any leads on which alligator clips can be connected. Since surface mount components are soldered directly onto the PC board, conventional test clips simply cannot be hooked onto these components. Presently, in order to connect test leads to the surface mounted components, a sharp test probe is placed directly on the solder pad on each side of the component. This normally requires two hands, as a single pointed test lead is held in each hand to make contact with each side of the component or to two measurement points in the circuit. With both hands in use just to hold the test probes, the technician does not have a hand free to make adjustments to the test equipment, press test buttons, etc. Not only that, the technician may not even be able to look at the measurement results on the test equipment because so much attention is required simply to keep the test probes in place on the solder pads. Dual point test probes, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,407; 4,915,258; and 2,675,528 simply do not have the miniaturization needed to work with surface mount boards, or are not adjustable sufficiently to utilize the close contacts necessary in miniaturized surface mount PC boards. U.S. Pat. No. 3,098,304 discloses a drafting compass that may hold two steel points, however, the entire compass is electrically conductive and made for a differing purpose than applicant's invention.
A need has developed for a new and improved dual point test probe which is manually operated by a single hand of a technician to contact both solder pads of a surface mount electronic component.